Tag: cut

Categories
News Politics

Did You Know That The Deficit Shrunk to $492 Billion

Image: DailyKos

With all the sensational news hunters in the media today, this little bit of actual news may have slipped by the rader. It’s a fact, not a lie so no one is shouting it from the hilltops. No cattle or guns are involved so this story is, for the most part, swept under the rug.

But did you know that under this president the national deficit has been cut to $492 billion this year?

Bloomberg News reports – The U.S. government’s deficit will fall to $492 billion this year, according to the Congressional Budget Office, a steeper drop than originally predicted from $680 billion in fiscal year 2013.

“This will be the fifth consecutive year in which the deficit has declined as a share of GDP since peaking at 9.8 percent in 2009,” CBO said in a report released today. The 2.8 figure as a percentage of gross domestic product is lower than the 3.1 percent average of the last 40 years, CBO said.

Now back to the real news – Cattle and guns.

Categories
Politics

House Republicans Cut $16 Billion From Food Stamps For The Poor

Democrats failed on Wednesday to block Republican attempts to cut billions of dollars in food assistance to poor American families, having earlier denounced the plans as an “abomination” and “immoral”.

The Republicans included the $16bn cut to the food stamp programme over the next decade as part of a five-year farm bill debated in the House of Representatives agricultural committee. Democrats submitted an amendment to prevent the cuts but lost in a vote after a heated debate in which some members of Congress said more than 2 million people would lose food assistance under the programme formally called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (Snap).

“You need to think of that child out there that’s going to go hungry,” said Democratic congressman David Scott. “This right here is the meanest cut of all. It’s un-American. Twenty percent of my home state of Georgia is on Snap. Can you imagine what a $16bn cut will do?”

The Republican move appears to be intended in part to highlight Republican disparagement of Barack Obama as the “food stamp president” because record numbers of Americans now claim the benefit, doubling the cost of the programme since 2008 to $80bn a year. More than 46 million Americans receive food stamps, nearly half of them children.

The agricultural committee chairman, Frank Lucas, justified the cuts in part by claiming that the system had been manipulated by some US states so the federal government provided food to households not entitled to assistance.

Categories
Mitt Romney money Politics presidential Republican

Poor-Man Romney Says Government Employees Making More Than He Is

With all you government workers making hundreds of millions of dollars a year, you will expect the economy to be a lot better than it is now. You will also expect everyone to drop their present jobs and flock to the government for jobs.  After all, why would anyone settle for anything less than $35 million a year!

According to Mitt Romney, who made up to $37.5 million in 2010,  government employees are making “a lot more money” than he is. Speaking at a fabrication plant on Monday, Romney targeted government employees, saying that if he becomes president, he will reduce the work force by 10%.

Wearing his best plaid work shirt and Tommy Bahama blue jeans, the candidate explained to workers at Giese Manufacturing that he would slash the number of federal employees if elected.

“We have to cut back on the scale of the federal government,” Romney declared. “And for me that will start by reducing federal employees by 10 percent. You do that through attrition.”

“And then something else that is just as important, and that’s to make sure the people who work for government don’t get better pay and better benefits than people that work in the private sector.”

He added: “The tax payers shouldn’t have to have money taken out of their pay checks to pay people in government who are our servants who are making a lot more money than we are.”

It’s a good thing we have the poor-man Romney looking out for us, having his finger on the pulse of exactly who is bringing down the economy – at last check, Romney was worth over $250 million. But that was about two hours ago. We’re sure a few more millions were added since then.

Categories
Politics Tax break

Republicans Cut Education Funding To Pay Corporate Big Wigs

As if the Republicans couldn’t stoop any lower, we introduce you to those in Lansing Michigan. These Republicans want to cut $1 billion from local schools to pay for a $1.8 billion tax break for rich CEOs and corporate special interests.

Although this is as disgraceful as one could imagine, this action by these Republicans is not surprising. Cutting back on educating the youth of tomorrow is a sure way to win the race to the bottom, a race these Republicans are determined to win… for America! An uneducated and uninformed electorate can be easily led, and this is what today’s Republicans are banking on.

So onward with cutting education funding. Today’s uninformed will be tomorrow’s Republican voter.

Thanks to @MEAOnline for this info.

Categories
Featured Texas

While Texas Burns, Perry Slashed Firefighter Funds By 75%

The fire raging through Texas is not a surprise, it’s something everyone expected, in fact, it happens often. Yet, with that in mind, Rick Perry, the Republican candidate for President in 2012, massively cut funding to the only agency whose job is to fight these fires.

Volunteer departments that were already facing financial strain were slated to have their funding cut from $30 million to $7 million, according to KVUE.

The majority of Texas is protected by volunteer fire departments. There are 879 volunteer fire departments in Texas and only 114 paid fire departments. Another 187 departments are a combination of volunteer and paid.

The raging inferno presently covers over 25,000 acres near Bastrop and has already destroyed nearly 500 homes. At a time like this, all hands should be on deck, but thanks to Perry’s decision making, the burning continues.

This decision by Rick Perry gives a whole new meaning to the term, ‘slash and burn.’

Exit mobile version